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The Indiana Court of Appeals is being asked to overturn a Marion Superior judge's decision that found the state statute requiring voters to show photo identification before casting a ballot is constitutional.

Attorneys for both the Indiana and Indianapolis arms of the League of Women Voters filed a brief Monday with the state's second highest appellate court, outlining in 47-pages why Marion Superior Judge S.K. Reid's ruling from mid-December should be tossed. The trial judge dismissed the action on the merits and found the statute doesn't conflict with Article I or II of the Indiana Constitution.

The League filed a notice of appeal in January in League of Women Voters of Indiana, et al. v. Todd Rokita, No. 49A02-0901-CV-00040.

Filed in June 2008, the lawsuit contends that the law passed in 2005 violates Article 2, Section 2 of the Indiana Constitution saying citizens only need to meet the age, citizenship, and residency requirements in order to cast a vote in person. Any change the legislature might make must come through a constitutional amendment, which didn't happen here, the suit says.

The group amended the complaint later last year with an additional constitutional claim under the equal privileges and immunities section of the Indiana Constitution, saying that the statute created disparate treatment of in-person voters because not every piece of photo ID is uniform and therefore it's not reasonable.

Michael Hoskins joined Indiana Lawyer in May 2006 and mostly covers the state and federal court systems. He’s received awards from the Indiana Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists for his work covering the state's juvenile justice system, the federal immigration court system, wrongful conviction issues, and long-running lawsuits regarding prison conditions.

He came from the Daily Journal in Johnson County, where he was a general assignment reporter covering courts and legal issues. Before moving to Indiana in 2004 from southeast Michigan, Hoskins freelanced for the Detroit Free Press and worked for the Spinal Column Newsweekly after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Oakland University in 2001. He currently lives in Greenwood with his wife, Susanne, and volunteers with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.